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| I.
Faculty Knowledge and Skills |
B. Creating Student Reflection Opportunities
There is considerable variety in the methods by which professors urge
their students to reflect on service-learning experiences. A variety of
tools, including writing and discussion, are used to stimulate student
reflection. Such reflection is essential in turning experiential education
into a powerful vehicle for learning that not only augments intellectual
growth during college but also has the potential to transform the ways
individuals relate to the world for a great many years beyond graduation.
- Assumption College - Community Service-Learning
Program
The journalism course introduces students to community agencies, enabling
them to write an article about how community needs are met, and about
staff members who make a difference. The visit by a parent offered students
insight into issues facing low-income families, and group field trips
provided students with a chance to reflect on new cultural experiences
they had.
- Chaminade University - Income Tax
Preparation
Students develop technical competencies and gain a better understanding
of government policy as it affects diverse populations, including those
who are poor or have not mastered the English language. The persons
being assisted teach students their own kinds of wisdom, humility, and
perseverance.
- Chatham College - Practitioner-in-Residence
Students learn from practitioners to model the applied dimensions of
leadership and public participation. Peers and their advisors from institutions
across the state also help students develop leadership skills in public
affairs. Guest lecturers add to their learning opportunities. Students
are asked to frame their projects as grant proposals in order to practice
applied skills emphasized in workshops. Upon presenting their proposals
they get feedback from their peers and the practitioner.
- College Misericordia - The Service
Leadership Center
This program permits students to understand their role as a community
resource.
- College of Notre
Dame, Baltimore - The Critical Question Reflection Method
A template is provided for guided reflection on experiential learning
activities.
- Columbia College, Chicago - Office
of Community Arts Partnerships
Students were given the opportunity to practice teaching in community
settings with high school students.
- Huntington College - Mindscape
Education majors are required to do an early field experience practicum,
which consists of teaching curriculum units developed specifically for
experiential learning. This practicum contributes to their understanding
of how children learn and benefit from a hands-on approach to learning
that is conducted in a natural setting.
- Illinois College - The Illinois Partnership
of Minority Achievement
College students gain teaching experience in diverse environments.
- Ithaca College - EcoVillage
of Ithaca
Students are prompted to think about sustainability; are encouraged
to become involved in science-based, community-ecology projects; are
offered summer independent study opportunities; and attend public events
with prominent guest speakers.
- Johnson C. Smith University -
The Urban Research Group
Students are taught to design and conduct research for community-based
organizations. They learn from faculty members and representatives of
CBOs how to design research instruments to be used in face-to-face interviews
and via telephone surveys.
- Madonna University - Certificate in
Community Leadership
As students do service-learning within their major, they construct a
community leadership portfolio as part of a senior level seminar.
- Mars Hill College - Thematic Courses
in Liberal Arts in Action
Learning outcomes for students are identified as "character development"
and "civic development." Students gain insights by working
with "at-risk youth" in the areas of housing and environmental
protection.
- Marywood University - The Latino Collaboration
Students engaged in research gain hands-on experience with aspects of
the Latino culture.
- North Central College - The Dispute
Resolution Center
Students learn, teach, and practice the art of conflict resolution,
on and off campus. They are offered the chance to develop their capacity
for leadership in peacemaking by learning from case studies and also
by actively engaging in conflict resolution.
- Rhodes College - Rhodes Service
Scholars Program
An individual student advisory committee, which includes a program staff
member, a community partner, and a member of the faculty, supervises
reflection on the relationships between the students' coursework, service,
and leadership training. In this process students provide input to faculty
on opportunities to connect their classroom with the Memphis community.
- Rhodes College - St. Jude's
Children's Research Hospital Summer Plus Scholars
Science majors are mentored by St. Jude biomedical researchers in performing
community-based research during the summer. Laboratory and clinical
research opportunities are afforded through partnerships with a research
institute. Close faculty-student interactions allow careful evaluation
of students' performance on oral and written presentations. Lessons
are learned about the nature and importance of biomedical research as
well as about scientific and medical community responsibilities.
- Rhodes College - The
Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies
Carefully selected students ("Rhodes Institute Fellows") participate
in interdisciplinary summer research-oriented seminars, followed by:
individual and group meetings, visits to significant local and regional
sites, and independent study under the supervision of faculty mentors.
Student papers are then disseminated via the web and into the community
after the students present their work on campus. Students are asked
to reflect on the quality of their summer experience.
- St. Ambrose University - Marketing
for the Mississippi Valley Growers' Association
In small teams, students designed a survey instrument for discovering
consumer perceptions of the market. They analyzed the results; researched
solutions to reported consumer problems; and presented their report
at the MVGA annual meeting.
- St. Edward's University - The HEB
Community Internship Program
Intern candidates' applications are ranked, based on criteria of academic
rigor and the students' opportunities to apply theories from their major
fields of study. Once selected, interns maintain a journal detailing
experiences and noting how learning objectives are met, produce a portfolio,
write a paper linking theory and field learning, meet with faculty intern
supervisors in reflection seminars, and make a presentation at an end-of-semester
luncheon.
- Tougaloo College - The Partnership
in Excellence
Students are expected to actively determine and explore what they already
know and what they need to learn in order to advance their understanding
of problems identified by community partners. They prepare position
papers to send to appropriate policymakers, with the goal of impacting
public policy. At an annual symposium and academic conference, students
are given the opportunity to present their papers.
- University of St. Francis - Occupational
Therapy and a Homeless Shelter
Reflection on the experience takes place with students via faculty-guided
reflection and discussion and includes comparison between didactic and
experiential learning. Additionally, students complete a journal reflecting
on their experiences. Internship concerns brought forward are discussed
and processed with the student group as a whole, with faculty guidance.
- University of the Incarnate Word
- Ministerio de Salud
Students learn how to help community residents manage chronic diseases.
They also learn from elderly, homebound residents how to do health assessments
and home visits where individual care is given. Students make presentations
of their findings in tandem with community members.
- Utica College - The History Project
This two-semester required learning experience offers junior and senior
history majors the chance to conduct historical research by using local
resources. The curricular connections to a common theme allow them to
learn how to place local and regional history within national and international
perspectives. Student findings are expressed by delivering a significant
paper in a conference setting. The best papers are published in the
College's annual historical journal. History majors with education minors
are encouraged to bolster their teaching by employing similar activities,
including making use of local historical societies, local and state
archives, and library colletions.
- Wagner College - Learning by Doing
Intensive writing skills are developed in a highly interactive "reflective
tutorial" that stresses connections between academic learning,
the surrounding community, social issues, and individual experience.
Students focus on groundwater pollution in Toms River, New Jersey, providing
an example of the kinds of observations that enrich learning. The opportunities
students receive are very meaningful. Near the end of the semester,
students are prepared to design a web page, and to present findings
to peers and others on and off campus.
- Wartburg College - Community Builders:
Fostering Intergenerational Civic Engagement
The learning skills acquired by students include: practicing methods
of civic engagement and appreciating their value to individual citizens;
the enhancement of Internet, reading, social, and critical inquiry skills;
and an appreciation of the benefits of giving to and receiving from
one's community. Moreover, students are expected to enhance their leadership
skills by participating in service-learning contexts that include planning,
implementation, and reflection on the activities of neighborhood leaders.
These experiences augment lessons taken from the literature on leadership.
- Wesley College - Boys and Girls Club
of Delaware
Students serve in paid and unpaid positions while gaining professional
experience in their majors.
- Wesleyan College, Macon - Aunt Maggie's
Kitchen Table
Students are able to reflect on their service through writing in journals
and preparing short papers.
- William Woods University - Rosa
Parks Center
Students hear about the life stories and experiences of young women
residents in formal sessions and through informal interactions. Students
who plan careers in social work and criminal justice tend to be notable
beneficiaries of the program. Student understanding of many social problems
(poverty, substance abuse, child abuse, and neglect, etc.) is enhanced
as stereotypes are broken down.
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